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I actually see this new schedule and the adding of the two new teams as an unwelcome step backwards for the league and for Israeli hockey, not as a step forward, and here is why I feel that way:

1. While the number of teams has increased, Israeli league teams typically only have 2 lines of offensemen, 4 defensemen, and a single goaltender. The league and the teams would be better served by, at a minimum, carrying 3 lines of offense, 3 lines of defense, and 2 goaltenders.

2. The teams need coaches. The players coach themselves on all of the teams except Metula (and now perhaps except for Metula Jr.). The teams also need ice time for practice, not just for game play. Except for Metula, none of the teams ever even practice on the ice together. At a bare minimum, each club should be practicing once per week on an inline rink. It's not ice time, but it's very similar and certainly better than nothing. Certainly it can develop stickhandling skills and team tactics. Ice time would be needed for shot development and ice skating skills as these are different on ice than with inline skates.

3. The teams need proper jerseys (except for maybe Haifa, the teams don't even have matching jerseys for every player on each team) and proper equipment.

4. The number of games per team last season had finally reached 10 per team, plus playoffs - not enough, but enough for a basic foundation. Now, the number of games per team has dropped to 7 games per team, plus playoffs. This is COMPLETELY inadequate, and, in my opinion, a major step backwards. Each team in an 8 team league should, at a minimum, play each opponent twice, for a 14 game regular season.

5. Is there still an Israeli junior league this season, or has that been eliminated in favor of adding the two new teams? If basically all of Israel's junior players are playing with the senior players, it will not, in the case of Israeli hockey, make either the seniors or the juniors better. The Israeli junior league's level of play was/is very, very, very low. It will just bring the level of play in the Israeli men's league down from barely Junior B to nothing more than mediocre beer league level.

The Israeli ice hockey federation needs to lean on the Metula Center, and, if it gets no help there, on the Israeli government, to get some more support for the sport in Israel. The single biggest needs out of everything I mentioned are more ice time per team - for both games and practices - and some coaches for each team to teach basic team tactics. The Metula Center should make ice time more available - even if at odd hours - and at a reduced rate for the odd hours. And the government of Israel should give the league some funding.

The other question is this - what, if anything, are the clubs doing to attract new players? Most of the guys on Haifa, for example, are over 40 years old, or at the very least in their mid 30's. I believe the situation is similar for Maalot.

The overriding factor is always money. However, Israel is not a poor country at all. Countries like Ireland and Spain and even Turkey have better organized leagues. If they can do it, Israel should certainly be able to.

Marc, the answer is simple- money !! Which we do not have... On the brighter side maybe I will play in one of the Febrauary game and then be able to give you the first hand account of what is happening

Yes, there will be a junior league. In general, youth issue does a little better than senior league, imho. There are more and more international tournaments israel youth teams involved in, the last one was this summer in France with teams from GB, Netherlands and Israel (and hosts od course).

From Israel was Iceberg (Bat Yam) team. Dunno, however, how much succesfull it was...But guys has acquired some experience.

Generally, Ice Hockey is still has very low level of popularity in Israel, most of the people don't even know about such game, and for sure don't know it played in Israel. And Federation seems does nothing to change the situation. Of course, money is the main problem, but some minimal marketing could be done without serious influences I think. Then, they can start to find some serious sponsor.

But all this is thoughtless without new rink in the center of the country.

Yeah, give or take $35 mil federation can come up with about $4 mil , Maislin is gone....
But sport is Popular and Russians especially do know about it. By the way in Brooklyn hockey there are teams which are 100% Israeli

Does Ice Time Herzliya have some familiar names that used to play for the more established clubs?

How did Rishon, with the likes of Avishai Geller (assuming he still plays there), lose to a bunch of kids?

Where are the big names from the national team playing this season? I assume Gusin is with Bat Yam, Geller with Rishon, Korotin and Amromin with Haifa, and Revniaga with Maalot. Am I correct? What about the other "known" names from the national team who actually play in the league (such as Belo, Butbull, Rebibo, Larin)?

As for the splitting of Metulla, is the average age of the Junior team still between 14 to 17 ?

If so, why is Oren Zamir, who's got to be about 20 by now, playing with them (i.e., the Junior team) ? What is now the average age of the main (i.e., not the Junior) Metula team?

Alright, Aldair, that's a lot of questions.....get to work, mate! :)

Also, I have not written my article on the troubles within Israeli hockey because I am still gathering source information, which is hard to come by.

Avishai, if you haven't seen them, check out my Israeli hockey articles at www.insidehockey.com. I interviewed Max (Birbraer) a few months ago and have done some other pieces. I correspond with Tal, who speaks very highly of you. I am trying to, in my published writings, promote (and educate the North American public about) Israeli hockey.

I'd love to interview you about the national team and the Israeli league. Send me a PM with your contact info. and I'll prepare something.

sign me up

Hi Gentlemen,

I'm Joel and I have been keeping up on the forum for a while now. I am an avid hockey player and I'm making my way to Israel on a 6 month program in Tel Aviv and considering Aliyah while there. My trip starts in Metula on January 20th playing in a tournament with the rec hockey association (http://www.israelhockeyassociation.org/) but I'm confident that I could go for a more competitive game and I am looking to get set up with a team in the Senior League. Finding contacts for the league has been a challenge. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I already plan on hanging out for the games on Jan 23rd but hoping to set up with a team in advance. Thanks.

1. The standings table needs correcting......if each team plays seven games, there should be a total of seven games in the various win/loss columns, but that's not the case. Certain teams look as if they played only six games (Metula Jr., Rekhovot), or even one game (Hertzliya).

2. Where did you find the scores? Let me know, I'll keep them updated when you are unable to visit the forums for a few weeks at a time. I've traditionally gotten them from the Haifa Hawks' website, but they have not posted them this season, and the Israeli league stats website was never updated after the second or third game.

3. With all of the player movement from last season to this season, can you get us rosters for the teams, or at least who the big three or four players are on each team?

1. The standings table needs correcting......if each team plays seven games, there should be a total of seven games in the various win/loss columns, but that's not the case. Certain teams look as if they played only six games (Metula Jr., Rekhovot), or even one game (Hertzliya).

2. Where did you find the scores? Let me know, I'll keep them updated when you are unable to visit the forums for a few weeks at a time. I've traditionally gotten them from the Haifa Hawks' website, but they have not posted them this season, and the Israeli league stats website was never updated after the second or third game.

3. With all of the player movement from last season to this season, can you get us rosters for the teams, or at least who the big three or four players are on each team?

it's anyway a little bit strange. From Metulla I've found eight scores... and I've other +/- goals for mostly teams. But maybe I did a calculating mistake... (except the eight scores from Metulla...) But anyway, me too...... thanks Aldair for posting infos/scores. Great job.

1. The standings table needs correcting......if each team plays seven games, there should be a total of seven games in the various win/loss columns, but that's not the case. Certain teams look as if they played only six games (Metula Jr., Rekhovot), or even one game (Hertzliya).

As I said before, the game between rekhovot and metula wasn't played, but each team got one point by the decision of the federation. In the case of Hertzliya, it was just my mistake. Fixed it, thanks.

Originally Posted by Marc Brunengraber

2. Where did you find the scores? Let me know, I'll keep them updated when you are unable to visit the forums for a few weeks at a time. I've traditionally gotten them from the Haifa Hawks' website, but they have not posted them this season, and the Israeli league stats website was never updated after the second or third game.

No, you can't cause I got the scores from the officials protocolsof the games. My friend and workmate is the main statist of the league, he got all the stats, and I just make copies of his lists. There is still no site with all this site, hopefully next season it will be.

This year there is also best scorers list, I''l post it soon.

Originally Posted by Marc Brunengraber

3. With all of the player movement from last season to this season, can you get us rosters for the teams, or at least who the big three or four players are on each team?